A Crossroads Resource

Unit XI: Leader of the Free World: 1945-1975

Question/Problem 3: In what ways did the Civil Rights movement change the lives of African Americans?

Martin Luther King, Jr.: "I Have a Dream"

Directions: In 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke to more than 200,000 people at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. Read the following excerpt from that speech and write a single sentence summary that explains King's vision for the future relatio ns between the races in America.

I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal.'

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and girls will be able to join with little white boys and girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

From Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren, and George Ducas, eds., The Negro in American History: Black Americans 1928-1968 (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica Educational Corporation, 1969), p. 175.

Back To Question #3